PG-13, 1:52, action
Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock, San Francisco investigative reporter and unwilling host body for alien Symbiote Venom. The film’s first half is a character study, juxtaposing the freewheeling but principled reporter Eddie with nemesis Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), a shady biotech entrepreneur who would rather inhabit outer space than try to disrupt climate change and who has a shocking disregard for human life. After receiving a tip from Dr. Skirth (Jenny Slate), Eddie breaks into a lab hoping to collect evidence that Drake has been abusing and killing homeless people for Symbiote trials. Venom inhabits Eddie’s body and turns him into an unlikely killing machine.
R, 2:15, drama
The new “Star Is Born” with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper is a shamelessly effective pathos machine. Cooper’s Jackson Maine is a roots-rock singer-songwriter battling chemical demons and a restless emptiness. We first meet Jackson on tour. Waitress Ally (Gaga) with that certain special something enters Jackson’s wobbly orbit soon enough. Two bars into Ally’s drag-bar rendition of “La Vie en Rose,” the man is hooked. Ally’s loving, devoted father believes in her talent more than she does. Gaga’s easy, offhanded command of the screen matches up well with Cooper’s sincere, straight-ahead portrayal of a decent man undermining his own talent, at times cruelly.
PG-13, 2:21, drama
The Neil Armstrong biopic from director Damien Chazelle comes from the James R. Hansen biography of the same name, exploring the far reaches of uncharted territory. Ryan Gosling is an apt choice for the role of Armstrong. “First Man” prioritizes the sheer, deafening mechanics of each flight, every orbit and the succession of risky missions. The claustrophobic experience of being inside aircraft and spacecraft in one life-and-death scenario after another: That’s the movie you get here, built around a private man. Claire Foy makes for a quietly fierce and wholly convincing Janet Armstrong. Chazelle has made his Apollo 11 movie, and it’s a good one.
PG, 1:30, comedy
The 2015 adaptation of R.L. Stine’s popular “Goosebumps” book series was way better than it had any right to be. But this follow-up is a serious disappointment. There’s a new group of kids in a new town, Wardenclyffe, N.Y., who are taken in by the evil machinations of ventriloquist dummy Slappy. The plot is of little consequence. All that matters is once Slappy’s out of the box, he wants to make some mischief. It’s a shame “Goosebumps 2” misses the mark so badly, when the original was such a hoot.
PG, 1:36, comedy
“Smallfoot” hinges on a clever reversal of perspective, centering on a tribe of Yetis who fear the unknown creature known to them as Smallfoot. Smallfoot is human, and the notion of taking a monster like Bigfoot and making him the hero, and humans the monster, is the fun of the movie. Migo (Channing Tatum) is a happy-go-lucky yeti who encounters a smallfoot pilot who crash-lands on the mountain. He tells his village, though he’s rebuffed by the Stonekeeper (Common). So Migo goes hunting for evidence.
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